Sarkozy honours two French soldiers killed in Afghanistan

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will attend a memorial service on Friday to honour two French soldiers killed last week in Afghanistan in a roadside bomb attack that also injured several other soldiers.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy attended a ceremony on Friday to honour two French soldiers killed in an explosion last week in Afghanistan. The ceremony took place at the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment headquarters at Vannes in Brittany.

One of the soldiers was killed and nine others seriously injured when a roadside bomb exploded during a reconnaissance mission north of the Afghan capital Kabul last Friday.

The second soldier died of wounds at a US military base in Germany, two days after the attack.

The latest death brings to 31 the total number of French soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

France has some 2,900 troops in the NATO-led coalition battling Taliban guerrillas and training Afghanistan's national security forces.

More foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year than in any other since US forces ousted the Taliban from Kabul following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.